A couple of days ago a Coimbatore-based family was doing all that they possibly could to save one of their family members. They were outside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a leading hospital in the city. The patient Selvaraj was kept there under strict observation.

Doctors informed the family that they would have to arrange Rs. 75,000 towards treatment costs. The members of the family were busy making arrangement. In the mean time 10-year old Shankar Balaji, son of M. Premlatha and P. Durairaj, who was observing all that was happening offered his savings of Rs. 60 to treat Selvaraj.

Selvaraj was Shankar’s relative and was very close to him. A teary-eyed Shankar went to his mother and offered her the money asking her to use his savings as well. “I own and run a browsing centre and whenever my customers give me coins of Rs.10 denomination, I give it to my son Shankar. This has been going on for the last two months,” Premlatha says. The family was stunned at the little boy’s gesture and they added his savings to treat Selvaraj.

Amritha Shridhar, a resident of Sai Baba Colony is a regular at the small store located at the corner of the street that she lives in. She often takes Sharmila, her 11-year old daughter to shop. She had the habit of giving her daughter whatever change she received. Sharmila had saved the money in her favourite hello kitty purse. Last week Sharmila accompanied her mother to the small store. It so happened that her mother was short of cash. Just when Amritha was requesting the shopkeeper to let her pay the due later, little Sharmila handed over the money to her mother from her purse. Her mother gave the money to the store owner and the owner in turn gave Sharmila a chocolate.

Children learn not only what they are taught. A majority of the learning happens out of observation. Many parents from middle class and upper middle class families have started teaching their children the importance of savings. It is a healthy trend that parents are teaching children the value of money savings and spending money usefully at a very young age.